Screw Me Over
by Sharzam
Summary: Naruto is the inheritor of a dark secret. Sasuke is the oblivious guy that gets sucked into it by Naruto's charisma and his own connection with their shared past. When everything starts falling apart and trust is worn thin, what could happen? NaruSasu AU.
1. Chapter I

**The ever-promised multi-chapter has finally come to fanfiction sites near you. I've updated a few things, but nothing major so to those who have already read it, don't worry. It was just a couple of elementary things that I got tripped up by.  
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**I get the feeling that I'm kind of setting myself up for hardship with this one, this being my HSC year and all. **

**Oh well. Read well, my minions.**

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"Hey, Sasuke!"

Sasuke Uchiha froze. He pivoted on one foot to meet the gaze of Suigetsu, halfway across the gym. "What is it?"

Suigetsu reclined on the bench, leaning his head back on the wall of the bleachers. "C'mere."

Sasuke edged closer, until he was about two metres away from the silver-haired guy. Suigetsu let out an impatient huff; Sasuke rolled his eyes and sat down next to his friend.

"What's up with you today, man?" Suigetsu asked, slinging his arm around the Uchiha's shoulders. "Usually you're one of the best on the court, but today you were all over the place."

Sasuke shrugged Suigetsu's arm off, pinning him with a glare. "There's _nothing _wrong with me."

"Whoa-ho, okay," Suigetsu exclaimed. "Cool your jets, bro. But you know, that pissy virgin attitude of yours is getting pretty old."

"My… virgin attitude…?" Sasuke muttered, his left eye twitching.

"Yeah. You need to get _laid_."

"Suigetsu." Sasuke scooted down the bench and turned to face the other guy. "I'm a seventeen-year-old, scrawny high schooler, I have skin that looks like it hasn't seen the light of day all my life, hair that looks like a duck's ass _naturally_, and my father is the police captain of this whole city. Who am _I _gonna find to fuck?"

Suigetsu ticked off the boxes in his head. "Yeah, well, you mean, who're _we _gonna get to fuck _you_? I mean, even if you weren't so _blatantly_ gay, your entire demeanour just _screams_ 'uke'. I'm no Doctor Phil, man, but you're so horny you're bouncing out of your seat."

Sasuke looked down, made sure that he was not actually bouncing, looked up again, and retorted, "What the hell would you know?"

"I'm a guy. Guys can tell these things about other guys. I can tell that you had your eyes on Naruto's ass that entire game."

Sasuke coughed and turned away. "I most certainly did not."

"Man, I wouldn't go there if I were you. He's going out with Sakura Haruno, and has been for almost half a year."

Great. So the guy he liked was going out with a girl he hated. Why the _fuck_ did these things happen?

Oh, right. Because life liked to screw Sasuke over.

"I'm not going to do anything, Suigetsu."

Suigetsu snorted. "Whatever. I'm hitting the showers."

"You like water too much, Suigetsu," Sasuke taunted, shoving his friend as the other guy got up from the bench.

Suigetsu shoved him back. "What can I say? It's in my nature."

"Hn." Sasuke stood up as well, picked up his gym bag, and walked towards the door leading out of the gym.

"Hey, Sasuke!"

The brunette froze. He turned slowly, only to spot the object of the last two hours of his perverted focus waving at him from the stands. Suigetsu was gone, presumably into the showers, and Naruto Uzumaki was the only one visible. Oh, and the pink-haired girl hanging off his elbow.

Sakura was an alright girl in most aspects, but her attitude towards pretty much everyone started to grate on your nerves after a while. It was as though she felt that she was superior to everyone else in the year.

Nonetheless, Sasuke ignored the girl and waved back at Naruto, albeit conservatively.

"You coming tonight?" Naruto yelled.

"Maybe," Sasuke shouted back. "My dad might be a little…" he fluttered his hands in a so-so motion.

"Oh yeah. That'd have to be tough, being the son of the chief," Naruto pondered loudly. "Well, if you can swing it with your parents, you should come. It's at Sai's place. You know where it is, right?"

As Sasuke nodded in confirmation, Sakura shrilled, "It'll be fun, Sasuke!"

Sasuke stared at her. Such familiarity from someone he barely knew was slightly disturbing. "We'll see."

When he emerged from the gym and headed towards the parking lot, he caught sight of Itachi's sleek black car. He smiled when his brother gave him a small wave through the tinted windows, and quickly let himself in to sit in the passenger seat, throwing his bag down at his feet on the floor of the car.

"How was practice, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, as he started the car and backed out of the parking space.

"It was fine, I guess," Sasuke answered vaguely.

Itachi picked up on his pathetic attempt at nonchalance immediately.

"Suigetsu busted your balls again, didn't he?"

"What the hell?" Sasuke exclaimed. Was he that transparent?

"Oh, man!" Itachi hollered. "You were perving _again_!"

"I – I was not _perving_!"

"You know, you're just lucky none of the other guys are as observant as Sharkboy."

"Just because of that _one _time he came to a party dressed as a shark does _not _mean that you have to call Suigetsu that all the time!"

"Aww… are you crushing on him now?"

"Suigetsu? Oh, _hell _no!"

"Oh yeah?" Itachi taunted, turning onto their street. It was a remarkably short distance from the school, but maybe that was just because Itachi drove faster than Sasuke did.

"Yeah. He's the one that _mocks _my sexuality, not encourages or takes part in it."

"He could be in denial."

"Sometimes I regret ever telling you," Sasuke snapped, turning away to sulk out the window.

"So… who was it?"

"As if I'm gonna tell you!"

"It was Naruto, right? The blonde with the cheek stripe tattoos? I gotta hand it to you, he's pretty hot."

Sasuke snarled at his older brother.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop," Itachi ceded, pulling up in the driveway of their family's mansion. "So I hear there's a party tonight. You gonna go?"

"I don't know."

"Sasuke," Itachi chuckled, "you should enjoy life once in a while. What's the hold up? Finals are two months away, and you're already plenty smart enough. Let loose a bit."

Sasuke shook his head. Everyone seemed to have absolute faith in his school marks, as if he were some sort of genius. He shut his own door as he got out of the car, and together they walked up to the house. Night was already falling, and half of the lights inside had been turned on.

When Sasuke and Itachi emerged inside the house, their mom, Mikoto, bustled out of the kitchen and hugged both of them. Pulling back from her younger son, she gave Sasuke a once-over. Seeing that he didn't have any visible injuries, she smiled.

"How was practice?"

"Apparently it was _fine_," Itachi snickered. Sasuke shot him a glare, resenting the fact that he couldn't discreetly kick his brother when his mom was right there.

"Yeah, it was good," Sasuke finally answered. "We're going to slaughter the other teams this year."

"I hope you do, dear," Mikoto said. "Now, dinner's almost ready if you boys want to clean up."

Upon an encouraging look from Itachi, Sasuke cleared his throat, stilling his mother on her way back into the kitchen.

"Mom, can I go out tonight?"

Mikoto stared at him for a moment, before asking, "Now?"

Sasuke glanced around, feeling awkward all of a sudden for implying that he would skip out on dinner with his family, including his father, whom he hardly ever saw due to his very taxing job. "Yeah. Just… get changed and go out again. Itachi and Suigetsu seem to be under the impression that I need to blow off some steam, and Naruto's having a party."

"Oh, that Uzumaki boy?" Mikoto seemed somewhat curious.

"Yes… wait, how do you know his last name?"

"His father, Minato, works with your dad as a private investigator. I've met Naruto before at some functions; he seems like a good kid."

"Yeah… he is," Sasuke mused. "So can I go?"

"I suppose," Mikoto answered. "Itachi can drive you there, and he might even pick you up, if he and your father are in the same general area, if you're nice to him."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the notion of being 'nice' to his brother, though he was interested with the last part. He turned to stare at Itachi's retreating figure, dragging himself up the stairs. "You're patrolling with Dad tonight?"

Itachi nodded without turning around. "Practical training, so he says." The older brother continued to trudge up the stairs, disappearing from view rapidly.

"I call shotty on the shower!" Sasuke yelled.

"Too late, little bro!" Itachi shouted back. Sasuke bit back a loud curse and threw himself up the stairs after his brother, leaving his mother to tut and retreat into the kitchen once more.

Fifteen minutes later, Sasuke descended the staircase and walked out the door, on the way to a party which he hoped would cure him of his 'pissy virgin attitude'. He was dressed in a simple white shirt over a blue singlet, black cargo pants and his blue Converse, a casual outfit that would both look cool and be comfortable. It was also a set of clothes that he wasn't worried about getting alcohol on.

He and Itachi got into Itachi's car, but just as Sasuke was about to get into the passenger seat, their father's cruiser pulled up in the driveway.

"Dad!" Sasuke exclaimed, panicking slightly. He had planned to be gone by the time he got home, because he wasn't sure what his father would think about him forgoing dinner to go to a high school party.

"Sasuke, Itachi," his dad greeted as he climbed out of his low-set police car, his black hair swept around his middle-aged, but still strikingly handsome face. "Where are you boys off to?"

"Sasuke's going to Naruto Uzumaki's party at Sai's house," Itachi replied promptly. "Mom told me to drive him there."

Dad regarded Sasuke carefully. "Don't get home too late. Don't steal any cars. Don't get too drunk. Don't do anything you'll regret in the morning. Have a good night."

Sasuke blinked. Then he decided to take his opportunities as they were, and opened the door, climbing into the car on the passenger side. Itachi got in beside him, pulled out of the double driveway, and started off down the road.

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**Yeah... updates won't be for a while. I have a million assessments (by which I mean four) due in the next two weeks, so I won't have much time. It's all written down, but it's such a pain to type it up.**

**Love you all**

**Sharzam**


	2. Chapter II

**Heyhey it's a new chapter! I know, 'OMG SHE'S UPDATING!' Well, I finished all my schoolwork and I finished 2009 today, so I felt appropriately happy enough to post another chapter. Hooray! **

**Enjoy.**

**EDIT: I edited in the 'tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime' bit, cos for some reason took it out.**

**ANOTHER EDIT: okay so just assume that the TIME down there is 'tttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimee' (like someone is yelling). FF is being a bitch.**

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There were all manner of people staggering about on the road when Itachi pulled up a few hundred metres away from the huge mansion which was Sai's home. It was barely seven, and already people were completely wasted.

Sasuke tried in vain to spot his friends. Suigetsu had texted him about a minute ago to tell him that he and Karin would be there, but so far he couldn't seem to spot them.

As Sasuke got out of the car and shut the door behind him, Itachi was smirking evilly. Sasuke didn't truly appreciate how assholish his brother could be until the older Uchiha was driving away.

"Have a lovely TIME, Sasuke!" Itachi hollered out of his window as he drove off, his steering admittedly erratic. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Fuck you, Itachi!" Sasuke screamed back, startling several party-goers around him. He heard his brother's maniacal laughter all the way up the street.

"I would," someone commented from behind, and Sasuke turned sharply to see Karin, sheathed in a thigh-high black dress and strappy heels, her smart-looking red glasses pushed over her delicate nose. Sasuke made a noise of disgust as he processed what she said.

"No. _God _no. You have a boyfriend, and I think that idea could give me nightmares."

"OK, but you should know that your brother is _damn _hot. In a mature kind of way."

"Hey, are you saying I'm not mature?" Suigetsu protested, looping an arm around Karin's waist as he came up behind her.

"No," Karin answered. "I'm merely trying to express that, thought Itachi is really, _really _good-looking, he's more mature than you or me or Sasuke, and I much prefer dating you because I _like _you, while I only _appreciate _him." Karin pressed her lips to her boyfriend's cheek in apology.

"Oh," Suigetsu managed. "That's alright, then." The silver-haired youth wore a black T-shirt and faded grey jeans, with black Converse. He fell into step with Sasuke as the Uchiha headed up the long driveway, pulling Karin along with him.

"So your dad's okay with you going out tonight?"

"What?" Sasuke asked stupidly, momentarily losing track of his train of thought. Upon seeing Suigetsu looking at him expectantly, he gathered them again and replied, "Yeah, he was cool, actually. Completely different from the usual. Just told me to have a good time and not to get into any trouble. I think, after five years, he's finally starting to see that I can take care of myself."

"Took him long enough. Can't really blame him for worrying, though," Suigetsu mused. Sasuke nodded in agreement, his thoughts starting to wander again.

"Yeah, I know."

As they approached the house, the door opened and Naruto stepped out. Upon catching sight of the three friends, he waved.

"Sasuke, you managed to come!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically over the party noises.

"That's what she said," Suigetsu muttered under his breath, smirking. Sasuke shoved him; Karin uttered an amused snort.

Naruto grinned at the trio as they passed him, and Sasuke's heart fluttered a little bit as he brushed the blonde's shoulder with his own. Damn it, he shouldn't be reacting so strongly to this guy!

As he, Suigetsu and Karin melted into the crowd, it wasn't hard to lose each other. Soon enough, Sasuke was pressed in between several other people that he only barely recognised, and he could no longer see his friends.

Now this was what he thrived on. Sasuke wasn't so foolish as to get scared of people at a party where it was pretty much impossible to avoid contact with at least five people per second. It wasn't being surrounded that freaked him out. It was being _alone_…

Sasuke shook his head and dispelled the thoughts. He wasn't alone. All he had to do was find Suigetsu and Karin…

…Who were probably already making out somewhere. And Sasuke sure as hell didn't want to get mixed up in _that_.

Somewhere else, then. The brunette pushed his way through the crown around him, emerging outside of the mass and taking a deep breath as if the air outside of the bodies was any clearer than on the inside. Or maybe he was just trying to calm himself down.

"I need a beer," Sasuke muttered. He swiped a bottle from a container full of ice, not particularly caring what it was, removed the cap, and brought it to its lips. He made a odd noise as the bitter fluid ran down his throat. Itachi was right. Beer was an acquired taste, and he hadn't exactly acquired it yet.

"Hey, Uchiha!"

Sasuke promptly choked on his beer, spluttering, and a strong hand beat down between his shoulder blades. After recovering from the small ordeal, Sasuke raised watery eyes to see both his ambusher and saviour.

"Oh, hey, love boy."

Gaara sneered at him. "Shut up, duckbutt. My mom wasn't right in the head when she gave me that fucking tattoo."

"Your dad wasn't right in the head for not getting it removed the moment she did it," Sasuke grinned, dropping onto a chair which had been seemingly conveniently placed behind him. Gaara sat next to him. "He must have known you'd be teased all the way through high school."

"Yeah, well, high school's gonna be over in two months and then I'm moving in with Sasori and Kankuro. Then I'll finally be free of that crack-whore and her alcoholic hubby whom I once called my parents."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty harsh, you know."

Gaara scowled. "They deserve it. But anyway, how have you been? I'm surprised your dad let you out tonight without Itachi in tow."

Sasuke grunted. "I wish people would stop assuming that I can't take care of myself. I don't need my brother to look after me."

Gaara smirked. "I reckon he just comes along most times because girls check him out all the time."

"Maybe that's his reason for staying away."

"Yeah," Gaara mused. "Maybe. Karin's looking for you."

Sasuke stared at him. "How can you possibly know that?"

"Because she's looking at you right now, and I can see her from here even though you can't. Maybe you're just not paying attention."

Sasuke grunted, and lifted himself from the chair. Immediately, he caught sight of Karin, scanning the crowd for him. Upon seeing him, she darted forwards, grabbed him by the wrist, dragged him into a room, and shut the door.

"Phew," she breathed.

Sasuke stared around the room. It was painted white, with only a few lamps on. These lamps were placed on planned-out side tables all over the place, along with chaise lounges and posing chairs and tables.

"Guess this is one of Sai's drawing rooms," Sasuke commented. Karin had crossed to one of the lounges, a black one, and had seated herself on the end of it. She patted the space next to her, and he joined her. He absentmindedly wondered how many naked people had posed on the very sofa he was sitting on.

"All right, what's up with you, Sasuke?"

"Why does everyone seem to think that there's something wrong with me lately?" Sasuke snapped without thinking. He knew that he'd given himself away the moment he saw Karin's affronted look.

"Well, if that reaction wasn't enough to go by, you've been distant towards everyone for _days_. And not just me and Suigetsu, but all of our other friends."

Sasuke _hmph_'ed. "I haven't been trying to be."

"You don't try to do anything anymore, Sasuke. This party is the closest thing you've been doing lately in the way of a life. Also, you were very obviously ogling Naruto back there."

Sasuke shot her a look. "It wasn't obvious to him, was it?"

"I don't think so, but it any case, he's way too nice to mention it if he did." Karin studied Sasuke's face for a moment. "Are you in love with him?"

"Karin," Sasuke sighed, ignoring the stomach turn that one suggestion had triggered, "I don't know him well enough to be in love with him."

"But you like him, right?"

"It wouldn't matter even if I did like him. He's with someone."

Karin snorted. "What, you mean Sakura? She's an overbearing bitch who won't last much longer in Naruto's good books no matter _how _nice he is. She doesn't deserve someone like that ball of blonde charisma; you'd be a much better person for him."

Sasuke smiled at her, and mumbled a 'thanks'. He was occasionally stunned by his friends' absolute acceptance of his sexual preferences, and this was definitely one of those times. Suigetsu, Karin, and his immediate family were the only ones he had told since discovering that he played for the other team.

Karin stood up, fluffing her hair and fixing her glasses. "Enjoy the party, Sasuke. But keep those wandering eyes under control, okay?"

Sasuke waved her away, and she disappeared out the door.

So she _knew_. Which meant that Suigetsu, for all his teasing, knew that Naruto meant more to him that merely eye candy. This realisation that his best friend was actually more intelligent and perceptive than Sasuke gave him credit for was disturbing in more ways than one.

For one thing, Sasuke had to accept that Suigetsu, for all his insensitive prodding, really did care about the Uchiha, and that was hard to come to terms with in itself.

For another thing, the silver-haired guy had told Karin, something that he never usually did, and had the red-haired girl talk to him, instead of doing it himself. Suigetsu had an understandable inability to have heartfelt talks with anyone but Karin, and had evidently hoped his girlfriend would be better at it.

Sasuke got up from the lounge, but all energy suddenly drained out of him and he leaned against the wall. He edged along it until he reached an interior door, and went through it into a very, _very _white bathroom. He closed the door behind him and sat on the tiled floor at its base, supporting his back against it. The cool surfaces soothed his aching heart and basketball-abused body.

The sound of the exterior door slamming open and then closed, and then the sound of two people walking inside, startled Sasuke from his self-induced monotony. The sound of hushed voices and scuffling alerted him to the fact that this was a conversation that he did _not _want to get involved in, no matter who it was.

His heart palpitated when he heard Naruto's voice outside his small bathroom abode, and then the hushed voice of Sakura, the bubblegum-pink-haired menace. His stomach sank to rock bottom when he realised that there was no escape. If he went out now, it would be painfully awkward, and if he stayed here and got discovered later, it would _still_ be painfully awkward, so all he could really do was sit on the floor, listening to the people outside and await the impending humiliation.

Sakura and Naruto's hushed, angry voices signaled that this was more like a don't-make-me-yell-at-you-cos-I'm-about-to-break-up-with-you instead of an I'm-going-to-have-sex-with-you-right-now-on-my-best-friend's-chaise-lounge conversation.

Sasuke really did _not_ want to be here.

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**Remember, my children, reviews = love and happy Sharzam and faster chapters. **

**I'm trying to put some personality into characters that I haven't really come into contact with since the early days, like Gaara, and putting my own personalities into characters like Suigetsu (whom I love) and Karin (whom I don't really mind). **

**xx**

**Sharzam**


	3. Chapter III

**Funny, it looked so much longer when it was on paper. So, this is the Christmas chapter. I'm going away in, oh, 11 hours. I decided to postpone packing to churn out another chapter before I go away. You guys deserve it. I love people. I love reviewers, alerters, favouriters, and readers in general. I love it. It makes me feel very happy. **

**Hopefully, questions will be answered this chapter.  
**

**Enjoy.  
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Sasuke's ear was almost airtight to the bathroom door by the time the main door was closed and the couple outside has begun to talk in not-so-hushed tones. Curiosity had overcome his better judgement and he was now only interested in overhearing as much as possible.

"Do we have to do this _now_, Naruto?" Sakura's voice complained.

"You're the one making a scene, Sakura," Naruto replied. His voice was darker, more serious than usual.

"Are you seriously going to dump me in _Sai's posing room_?!"

"I'd rather not, but after you just made out with Kiba right in front of me, that seems like a good option."

Sasuke's tiny corresponding gasp was covered up by Sakura's roar of outrage.

"You know, if you'd been paying the slightest bit of attention to me these last few weeks, maybe it wouldn't have gotten this far out of hand!" She sounded as angry as Tiger's wife.

"I never expected _my _girlfriend to sleep with everyone in our year!"

SMACK! "Ow! Let go of me, Naruto!"

"Fuck. Sakura, if you hit me again, I'll destroy your reputation for good."

"Well, I could do some pretty substantial damage to _your _reputation too, you know!"

"…What are you talking about? I have nothing to be ashamed of."

"Sometimes I wonder why you even bothered asking me out in the first place. Everyone knows you're gay!"

Sasuke inhaled sharply. Well, _that _was unexpected. He listened intently for Naruto's reply.

"Wrong. I'm bisexual, Sakura. If I were gay, I wouldn't have put up with your adultery for this long. I'd have dumped your ass and gone off to find some dude to fuck. But I stayed with you, didn't I?"

"You did it out of guilt. If you really felt anything for me, you would have broken up with me already instead of dragging out a dying relationship. I know you're hung up on someone else."

Another pause. "I don't know what you're talking about."

_Quit playing dumb, you idiot, _Sasuke thought. Sakura was really going to let him have it in a minute.

"I don't know if it's a guy or a girl or an alien, but your eyes have been on someone else for weeks! We've been together for five months, but you've been my best friend my whole life, Naruto! I can read you like a book, cover to cover."

Sakura's voice trailed off.

"Look, I know that what we once had is long gone, but know that it wasn't just my fault that this came crashing down around our ears. And you're gonna be really lonely unless you address who you've been after."

The door clicked. A deep exhalation told Sasuke that Sakura was the one who left.

"Sasuke, you can come out now."

Instead of freezing up in pure terror like any sane person would upon hearing someone say something like that, assuming that said person had known all along that you were in the vicinity when they were breaking up with their girlfriend, Sasuke swallowed his reaction, cursed under his breath, opened the bathroom door and walked out.

"How'd you know it was me?"

Naruto looked up. He was sitting on the sofa that Sasuke had previously occupied, his arms and legs crossed. He grinned slightly.

"I saw you come in here with Karin. Didn't notice you leaving, though when Sakura started freaking out and forced me to come in here, I didn't have time to make sure you weren't in here anymore. I really just guessed that you were still here."

Sasuke scuffed a toe on the carpet. "Sorry, man. About Sakura, and eavesdropping…"

Naruto waved at him to stop. "Don't be, it wasn't your fault on both counts." His eyes flickered with something that Sasuke couldn't recognise, but that blue gaze diverted from his own and he didn't see it again. "After all, she was right. I wasn't just her." Naruto looked up at Sasuke. "You ever been with someone like that?"

"What, someone who sleeps around? Nah. I've only ever been with someone once, I as thirteen and it wasn't really a relationship."

"Thirteen? That's rough."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, shoving the bad memories from his mind.

Naruto must have seen his face, for he didn't press for details. "So, you're not with anyone at the moment?"

"No, why?" Sasuke had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"Would you be interested in going out with me?"

Wow. Ask that any time apart from now and Sasuke would have accepted immediately. But…

"Sorry, Naruto, but I don't think that would be the best idea at the moment."

"Oh," Naruto muttered. Sasuke felt a stab of guilt as he surveyed the other guy. The blonde looked … crushed. "Sorry, I didn't realise… I feel sort of stupid now…"

"Naruto," Sasuke cut in, "it's not that I don't like you. I do; a _lot_."

Naruto gazed at him. Sasuke felt the blush spreading across his cheeks, but thankfully the room was rather dark and hid it satisfactorily.

"But I don't want to be a rebound from a messy break-up. If you want to be with me, it has to be for _me_, not a replacement for Sakura or whoever you're all tangled up over." He could practically _hear_ his Inner Karin cheering him on as he placed his hand on the door handle.

"Idiot."

Sasuke stilled in his action of turning the handle to open the door. "What?"

"_You're _the one I've been hung up on."

Sasuke's eyes widened, then slid shut. The door slammed, and Naruto was alone.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" Sasuke muttered as he wove through the people outside the room. Not only had he just witnessed his most-hated-couple breaking up, but he had also been asked out by Naruto Uzumaki, and he had subsequently turned him down.

In normal situations, with normal people, the subject would subdue his emotions with a straight shot of vodka or some such alcoholic beverage, but Sasuke Uchiha was not a normal person. He was frustrated and angry and going through an early-life crisis, and his best friends were nowhere in sight…

_Oh wait, there they are,_ Sasuke thought as he shoved his way over to the staircase. Suigetsu was sitting on the bottom stair, Karin draped over his lap, and they were both making out like teenagers on a summer's day. Suigetsu caught sight of him first, pulling away from his girlfriend, and stared at Sasuke instead.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Karin eyed him with concern; Suigetsu looked suspicious.

"I have to talk to you guys," Sasuke murmured.

"Does this have anything to do with why Sakura Haruno has been crying into Hinata's shoulder for the last ten minutes?" Karin asked.

"It has everything to do with that."

"Ooh, intrigue," Karin whispered conspiratorially, tugging Suigetsu up the stairs. Sasuke followed, and all three of them ended up in… another posing room.

"This is getting annoying," Sasuke grunted. Suigetsu shot him a confused look, and he ceded, "I think all the rooms in this house are like this one. It's like a fucking labyrinth."

Suigetsu nodded as he and Karin sat on one of the sofas. "Yeah, I heard Sai's pretty full on. Now, what's up? Sock it to me quick, bro."

"Naruto just asked me out," Sasuke blurted, and immediately looked away from his friends, embarrassed by his forward attitude.

Karin blinked, and then started out of her seat, but Suigetsu retrained her with a hand on her shoulder. She remained on the sofa, but glared disapprovingly at Sasuke.

"Tell me you turned him down," she started, and Suigetsu threw her an incredulous look. "If you got together with Naruto five minutes after he broke up with Sakura —"

Sasuke decided to let her rant for a while longer so he could think a bit more about his course of action.

"—I would be extremely disappointed in you. I mean, that is something you just don't do, even if you _are _completely infatuated with the guy—"

"What?" Suigetsu put in, changing the direction of his vision from his girlfriend to his best friend. "You're 'infatuated'? Here was me thinking you were just checking him out!"

"Calm down, Suigetsu, Sasuke hasn't confirmed anything yet. Although, I will be pretty pissed if he accepted Naruto's offer. What kind of guy asks another guy out right after he breaks a girl's heart, anyway?"

"Apparently Naruto," Sasuke said at last. "And don't worry, _Mother_, I did turn him down. Naruto broke up with Sakura because she's a cheating slut, but she dumped him because he was hung up over someone else. Then he busted me listening in from the bathroom which no, Suigetsu, I didn't do on purpose, and asked me out. Then he dropped the bomb that I was the one that Sakura left him about."

Suigetsu let out a long, low whistle. "Wow. You're a _homewrecker_, Sasuke," he chuckled. "But seriously, on the 'cheating slut' part, I reckon Naruto did the right thing. If she were my girlfriend, I would've slapped that bitch up if she did that to me." He winced as Karin smacked him in the shoulder. "The worst part is, I reckon Naruto's known about it for a while. I mean, it was only a matter of time."

"How many guys did she actually sleep with?" Sasuke asked, curiosity spiking.

"Well, I heard a minute ago that it was around about a guy a week for the last two months. She and Naruto were together for almost five months."

"Jeez," Sasuke muttered. Sakura really had been getting around.

"The guys who were closer to Naruto that to Sakura told him what she was doing, though," Suigetsu mused. "Maybe he would have done something about her sooner if he hadn't gotten caught up on you. Guess he though it was fair, the way they were both sort of involved with other people."

"It was convenient for him to stay with Sakura if he was uncertain about Sasuke," Karin added. "Now, I know we all enjoy bitching about Sakura, but it's this duck-butt freak here that we have to think about at the moment."

"Naruto is bisexual," Sasuke stated, beginning to pace in front of the sofa. Karin was going to have none of that, though, and dragged him down to sit on her other side. She wrapped the arm that wasn't wrapped around Suigetsu's waist around his shoulders, and pulled them all back into a relaxed, reclining position.

"So we know he likes you. We know that you haven't fallen for a straight guy, thank god. We know that he broke up with his girlfriend for you. And we know that he asked you out and you turned him down in an impressive display of moral fibre."

"We know all this already, babe," Suigetsu complained.

"I'm just laying all the cards on the table, _Suigetsu_," Karin snapped. "The thing is, we're the only ones besides Sasuke who _do_ know about this course of events. So zip the lips, all right?"

"Yeah, okay," Suigetsu ceded. "What I want to know is, why didn't you tell me you were digging someone for real, Sasuke?"

"I don't know," Sasuke admitted honestly. "I guess I thought you might tease me even more mercilessly if you knew."

"So, no mercy at all?" Suigetsu chuckled. "Nah. I think I wouldn't be able to tease you at all if you weren't perving on the whole team anymore."

"I don't 'perve on the whole team', Suigetsu," Sasuke argued. "Just… select few."

"Like Naruto."

"Yes, like Naruto."

Karin touched Sasuke's shoulder gently. "You're going to have to trust him if the two of you get together."

Sasuke stiffened.

"I know that trust is a big thing for you to impart, but trusting each other is a vital part of every relationship. You trust us two, right?" Karin gestured to herself and Suigetsu.

"Yeah," Sasuke answered, giving her a small smile. "We're friends, after all."

"But you used to be friends with Naruto when you guys were in elementary school. By rights you should trust him more than us, since we only really met you three years ago."

"Yeah, but I had to leave," Sasuke countered. "I left, and when I came back it was never the same between us. And not for lack of trying, either. We were just never really close after that. So I didn't really have any, well, _good _friends until you guys came along."

"Aw, shucks, duckbutt," Suigetsu simpered, ducking when Sasuke took a swipe at him from behind Karin. "I didn't realise your heart had warmed up a little since you met us."

"Well, considering that Naruto had the guts to ask you out directly after he dumped Sakura, we can assume that he's gonna try again," Karin intoned.

"So what do I do if he does?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Karin added sarcastically.

"No," Suigetsu offered.

"He accepts, of course! This could be the start of a wonderful new relationship for the little freak.

Just as Sasuke was about to explain how much he resented being called a freak, there was a bang from the hallway and the door burst open.

"Whoa…" Ino Yamanaka exclaimed, pinned almost nose-to-nose to Shikamaru Nara, who was surveying the trio with an expressionless curiosity that only Sasuke recognised.

"Wrong room," Shikamaru muttered. "Sorry, guys, all the rooms in this house look the same."

The door shut again, and Sasuke was the first to speak.

"Looks like the party's winding down. I think I'll go home now."

"Hey, hold up," Suigetsu interrupted. "I'll give you a ride. Coming, babe?"

Karin nodded affirmatively. "Yeah. I've had just about enough partying for one night."

"Well, I've had enough drama to last me a week," Sasuke muttered, standing up and waiting as the other two followed suit.

As they fought through the crowds of drunken teenagers to reach the front doors, Karin shouted, "Isn't Itachi supposed to pick you up, Sasuke?"

"Only if I call him to tell him I'm leaving," Sasuke shouted back. "And he's probably across town, patrolling with Dad, anyway."

"Just as well," Suigetsu added, as Karin began to pout. When Sasuke sent him a questioning look, the sharp-toothed guy shrugged and said, "Karin pervs on him too much, man. I don't like it."

Sasuke shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye as they left the house and walked down the driveway, he saw Sakura, her leg hooked over Kiba Inuzuka's hip, her hands under his shirt as she basically sucked his face off.

"Give her one second…" Sasuke snarled.

Karin and Suigetsu stopped and glanced over to where he was looking.

"Probably just stress relief," Karin imparted. "I heard that Kiba's a real demon in bed." When Suigetsu glared at her, she was quick to add, "I didn't get that information _first hand_, Suigetsu. I heard it from Ino, who heard it from another girl."

"Speaking of Ino," Sasuke began, as the three of them started to walk again, "how do you think Deidara would react if he knew Shikamaru was rutting his sister?"

"I reckon he'd cheer them on," Suigetsu answered. "Maybe say something about the artistic explosiveness of the passionate love shared between two parties."

"You're starting to sound a little too much like Gai there, Suigetsu," Sasuke snickered.

"Oh, man! There is one guy I won't miss when we graduate. The moment I'm clear of this school, I'll never have to do fifty lunges for a crazy jumpsuit-wearing guy ever again."

"He always was a fair bit harsher on you than anyone else," Karin pondered.

"Payback for my brother being such a lazy punkass, I guess," Suigetsu said. "From what Kisame told me, Gai never liked him, but he couldn't ever get him to do anything because of one thing. Gai already had three warnings from randomly attacking students, and for another thing, Kisame was always so goddamn massive that Gai wussed out."

When they reached Suigetsu's red car, parked on the side of the road, Karin clambered into the backseat, Sasuke into the passenger seat, and Suigetsu into the driver's seat. He revved the car and sped away from the house, passing many people who swaggered, drunkenly, away from the brightness of the headlights.

Fifteen minutes later, Suigetsu pulled up outside Sasuke's house. As the brunette got out, Karin placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't think about it too much, Sasuke. Unpredictability is a good feature of a satisfactory relationship. We'll see you at school tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded and closed the car door. He walked up to his front door, opened it, and disappeared inside.

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**I know the party seems rather short, but I wasn't thinking about the party. I wonder if I'm the only one who noticed that. **

**As a Christmas present, perhaps I could get some reviews? They make me so happy. I'll be back for the New Year...**

**xoxo**

**Sharana  
**


	4. Chapter IV

**Wow, I would love to say that I'm sorry for not updating in such a long time, but I've been having lots of HSC assessments and exams lately (for those not Australian, the HSC is the set of exams at the end of your last year of high school, and the leadup to them is even more intense than the exams themselves). I've been very stressed. **

**Lucky for me, this was already half-written when I got cracking this morning. **

**Unfortunately, the untimely loss of my USB has left me without a very important English assessment, along with a rather LONG fanfic I've been writing. So I don't feel that great. APPRECIATE MY EFFORT.**

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**EDIT: I found my USB. Everything is okay. I got some negative reviews regarding this chapter in regards to what happens at the very end, and I am very sorry. I don't live in America and I don't go to co-ed school. Any help would be extremely useful! I know that lots of you go to school in the USA and some feedback regarding life there would be invaluable, seriously! **

**Anyway, I've replaced the previous document with a revised version. Today, I went and wrote down all the things I want to happen in the story and all the character connections, and when I looked back at it this afternoon, I was actually disappointed with myself for presenting such a piecemeal chapter. Sorry again. Hopefully this one is better. We're getting into the deeper stuff here, and it's extremely exciting for me. **

**Thanks to the people who brought the fagginess of the previous document to my attention. I changed the last bit, hopefully it's better. I'm much more satisfied with it than the last one. I'm not going to change it again. **

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Itachi woke Sasuke extremely rudely the next morning, and the younger Uchiha could only hope that the bruising surrounding a spot on the left side of Itachi's jaw was not as noticeable as it appeared to be from close range.

Some could say that, given that it was actually nine o'clock in the morning and Itachi was doing Sasuke a favour by making sure he didn't miss his lift, the young policeman didn't really deserve his crass treatment.

Sasuke knew this, but he was feeling a bit sick to the stomach at the prospect of going to school. He hadn't even consumed any alcohol last night, and, upon entering his house after Suigetsu dropped him off, had been informed by his surprised mother that it was only a shameful eleven thirty.

Thoroughly depressed by his apparent disability to enjoy a night out with friends normally, even though he had been given undue sources of stress and involvement from unexpected locations, he collapsed into bed and practically passed out.

Now he had to deal with Itachi standing over him, looking decidedly more threatening than before his brother had punched him.

"Get up, Sasuke. Mom told me you weren't even the slightest bit drunk when you came in last night, something that she was rather proud of, so you can't pull that excuse."

Sasuke groaned and opened his eyes. He attempted a look of anguish, but Itachi's cold black eyes immediately shot it down, reaching down and yanking Sasuke out from under the covers by his hair, something that the younger man protested against, loudly. He glared at Itachi.

"You should have been up and about ages ago," Itachi snapped. "Suigetsu gets here in half an hour. Go and have a shower."

When Sasuke started to move sluggishly towards the bathroom, Itachi brought his palms together right in front of his brother's nose, creating a god-awful clash of noise that echoed heinously in Sasuke's resigned brain.

"Come on, get a move on! What are you, severely depressed or something?"

"In a manner of speaking," Sasuke muttered.

"Whatever. I have patrol at ten, I have to leave in half an hour and so do you. You better be ready to leave by the time Sui gets here. You two are lucky you have the first two periods off, or you would be ridiculously late."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, and closed the bathroom door.

Ten minutes later and Sasuke was clean and more awake than before. Sasuke managed to pull on a T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, grabbing socks and his black Converse on the way down the stairs. His backpack was slung over his shoulder, and he was grateful, for once, that he didn't have basketball today because of the extra bag he would have to compile in a hurry.

Sasuke found his brother in the kitchen, eating a piece of toast slathered in honey. He dumped his bag and shoes in the doorway and fetched down the cornflakes box, pouring a hefty amount into a bowl and then drowning it in milk. He poured himself a glass of orange juice, picked up the bowl of cereal, and sat down next to Itachi. He glanced at the clock; quarter past nine.

Sasuke started to shovel his breakfast into his mouth, using the food as an outlet in which he could avoid the meaningful stares that Itachi was awarding him.

"Sasuke."

More cornflakes. He took a sip of orange juice and immediately cringed at the mixed up taste of milk and fruit juice.

"All right, that was just disgusting. Sasuke, look at me," Itachi said, firmly, having polished off his toast in record time and was now wrapping his hands around his cup of tea, staring intently at his little brother.

Sasuke swallowed the awful mixture of food and went to shove more in, but Itachi grabbed his wrist before he reached the cornflakes and made him put the spoon down. The glare that was immediately directed at the elder Uchiha faded as he caught sight of the look on Itachi's face. He was concerned about Sasuke, and that in itself made him feel unbearably guilty.

"What?" Sasuke demanded, but his voice was less accusing, more questioning.

"Is there something wrong? You looked a little bit… troubled earlier."

Sasuke looked down at his half-finished breakfast. He always told Itachi everything, and his brother always understood. They had a very close bond, and this was always obvious to anyone who saw them together.

"Some pretty intense stuff happened at the party last night, and I'd really like to tell you about it, but I only have ten minutes to finish eating and getting dressed and then I have to go to school," Sasuke said in one breath, "so can I tell you when I get home this afternoon? It might take a while."

Itachi nodded. He knew that Sasuke was having a little trouble with his feelings at the moment, and he was prepared to give his brother his space. But, man, it must be a big deal for Sasuke to be this torn up over it.

After finishing his cereal, draining his juice, tugging on his shoes and brushing his teeth very fast, Sasuke stumbled out the door at the exact moment that Suigetsu's car pulled up at the curb. The brunette immediately announced himself as God, even as he climbed into the vehicle next to Suigetsu.

"You wish, you fucking fruit," Suigetsu chuckled. Dressed in black jeans, black Converse and a light blue, button-up, cotton shirt that Sasuke was almost positive he had helped Karin buy, Suigetsu was one of those people who could roll out of bed two minutes before leaving home and still look awesome.

_Slipknot _was screaming on the radio, and the silver-haired youth quickly turned it down a little bit so he could talk to his best friend. "How are you feeling on this fine morning?"

Sasuke groaned. "I woke up half an hour ago."

Suigetsu hissed through his teeth. "Wow, that puts you as having… oh, a solid nine hours of sleep. Well done. You wanna know what I did last ni-"

"I _know _who you did last night, Suigetsu," Sasuke growled. Even if he wasn't hungover, he was still not a morning person, and Suigetsu's voice was a little too loud for his liking.

Suigetsu didn't miss the reference. He hmph'd, turning his eyes back to the road.

The _Slipknot _was getting weird. The singer was screaming so loud, and at a volume too low for Sasuke to hear what he was saying, and all the words were blending together. As Suigetsu turned onto the main road and headed towards school, Sasuke fiddled with the tuning knob, and winced when Kate Ceberano came on.

Suigetsu snickered. "Smooth, Sasuke, real smooth." He reached down, batted Sasuke's hands out of the way, and switched to a station that was playing a _Daft Punk _remix. Sasuke sighed in relief, sagging back into the car seat and letting the music overtake and uplift his damaged soul.

"Could you please tell your mind to shut the hell up?" Suigetsu interjected. Sasuke stared at him. He couldn't possibly have spoken aloud, right?

"Your angst is sucking the air out of this car, man," Suigetsu explained coolly. "Relax, will you? Naruto is only in a few of your classes, and I'm with you in them, so you can probably successfully ignore him if you really want to."

Sasuke wondered, not for the first time, whether Suigetsu was psychic. Unlikely, but still…

"Shut uuuppppp," Suigetsu groaned, thumping the steering wheel to emphasise.

"What would you _like _me to think about?" Sasuke snapped. "How the fuck do you know what I'm thinking?"

"I don't know, but the depression is suffocating me! There's this sort of aura, and you scrunch up your face and you frown and it makes me feel tense. You were so happy yesterday, what the fuck happened?!"

Sasuke stared at him owlishly, his face carefully bland.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot."

"Are you still drunk?" Sasuke accused. "You want me to drive?"

Suigetsu shook his head. "I'm _fine_. Sit your pansy ass down and shut up. Think of something that's not completely depressing, like… puppies. Or… candy canes."

Sasuke snorted at the words coming from his friend's normally-crass mouth. "I'm not going to think about cute and sweet things. I _hate _sweet things. You _know _that."

Suigetsu smirked. "Well, at least this conversation doesn't make your face crinkle up like that. It's scary, man."

"Exactly how many times did your skull get cracked on the headboard last night?"

"Too many times to count, bro."

The rest of the short trip to school went on in relative silence, with an occasional joke and resulting snigger from both boys. Sasuke refused to think about the blonde who had occupied his thoughts from the time he left the party last night until he climbed into Suigetsu's car this morning, and instead thought about how much he was going to enjoy tormenting all the hungover people at school.

Pulling into student parking, Suigetsu parked his car and got out, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder, waited for Sasuke to emerge next to him from the other side of the car, and slung his left arm around the brunette's shoulders, pulling him snugly into his body sideways. Sasuke squirmed, but didn't reject the contact.

"I still maintain that you're bisexual," Sasuke grinned as they walked to the independent study room, in other words, the place where the people who were lucky enough to get the first two periods off school hung out until it was time for class. The small number of their schoolmates paid no attention to them, instead brushing over the duo with bloodshot eyes, not even bothering to pay them a second glance.

Suigetsu hugged his best friend closer, snickering at the fangirl screams that issued from a few girls in the hall. "Oh no, my dear Sasuke, the term for our relationship is described as a 'bromance'."

"God knows there have been worse bromances, Sui."

"Amen."

"Morning, you guys," yawned a sleepy Karin from behind the silver-haired teen, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's waist and hips from behind. Suigetsu placed his hands over hers and rested them comfortably on his belt.

"Hey, Karin," Sasuke murmured, mindful of the girl's zombie-like condition. "Was last night really so exhausting?"

_Smack_. Karin had reached up and slapped Suigetsu's face with a weak hand. "You _told_ him?!"

"Baby, of course not!" Suigetsu protested. "He just… he just _knows_. It's crazy. I didn't tell him anything."

Karin pouted before opting to bury her nose in the back of her boyfriend's shirt, attempting to fall asleep right then and there. Sasuke watched, amused, as Suigetsu detached his girl from his back, swiped her up into his arms, and carried her with him to a desk, seating himself in the chair. Once there, he arranged her in his lap, wrapped his arms around her, rested his chin on her shoulder and went still.

Sasuke, still leaning against the wall of the classroom, regarded his two best friends with the kind of tenderness that only stemmed from watching two people who were very obviously in deep like with each other. He wasn't sure if it was love between them, as he wasn't privy to their private conversations, but he was pretty positive that their attachment was close to love.

Now why couldn't he have that? Not with a girl, because as much as he believed that Karin was a very attractive young woman and that Suigetsu was a very lucky guy to have reeled her in, Sasuke just couldn't get attracted to women in general.

"Ssstooooooop," Suigetsu groaned from a few metres away, and Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts immediately. Karin stirred restlessly, asking him a silent question.

"Sasuke's being particularly angsty this morning," Suigetsu explained.

"How the fuck can you _tell_?" Sasuke demanded, drifting towards the classroom door and possible escape from the madness and the thought-controlling antics.

"I just _can_… hey, where the fuck do you think you're going?"

"Out."

And he was gone.

Suigetsu moaned and buried his face in Karin's hair.

Sasuke wandered the halls. It was always the least crowded on mornings like these, after ridiculously huge parties.

It was doing this wandering that he happened to witness an extremely awkward moment between the person he was trying to keep from his thoughts and the person who had recently fallen, hard, out of the picture.

Kiba Inuzuka had Sakura pressed against a pair of lockers, but they weren't really doing anything. Kiba's face was turned to the side, looking at something Sasuke couldn't see. Sakura was trying not to look, but she was softly murmuring into Kiba's ear.

Sasuke walked a few more steps, his feet silent on the tiled floor, his shoes not even giving a single squeak, and rounded the next corner, practically concealing himself behind the row of lockers along the wall opposite the one that Sakura and her new beau were leaning against.

Naruto was the next person he saw, standing in the middle of the corridor. He looked significantly surprised, but it was something that Kiba said next that had him gritting his teeth.

The tension in the air was incredible, and Sasuke had made up his mind to get the fuck out of there before all hell broke loose when Sakura suddenly turned her head to the other side and locked eyes with him.

Sasuke's chin came up as he regarded her with what he knew was a stony expression. She merely smirked. Sasuke, unnerved, backed away slightly. With a silent sweep of his jacket against the hard, grubby wall, he turned and walked away.

"Shut your fucking mouth, Inuzuka," Naruto growled, his fists clenching. He made sure not to make eye contact with Sakura.

"Oh sorry, too far? Go complain to your worthless brother, you stupid piece of trash."

Naruto lurched forwards with an outcry of rage, and Sakura quickly got out of the way. The blonde's fist met with the bone of Kiba's jaw, his knuckles marring the tattoos on his cheeks. The brunette grunted at the impact, then took a swing of his own. Naruto bent back and dodged, backing away to a safe distance.

"Don't you dare talk about my brother that way, bitch," Naruto spat, his teeth bared. "Don't forget why you have those marks on your face. We were at war from the moment we first met."

"You'd do well to remember that too, fuckwit. Especially the next time you put a gun to the head of a gang boss."

Naruto snapped. For once, he truly, really lost it. His semi-auto .45 was out of his jacket before Kiba could move a muscle, and the brunette was then pressed to the wall of lockers by the tip of the barrel between his eyes, the early morning sunlight drifting through the windows and catching on the silvery metal.

"You wouldn't," Kiba murmured.

"I could kill you right now, Inuzuka, and I wouldn't feel any remorse for it. Because of you, Pein almost died back then. And I know you're still working for the Madara gang. If you don't want to die before you graduate, I suggest you stop making trouble."

Sakura had watched the entire exchange, and now she was quite terrified. There were no teachers around, and when Naruto was like this, she didn't have a single doubt that Naruto would finish her off as well if she proved to be a distraction.

Naruto replaced his gun in its holster hooked to the inside of his jacket, lowered his hand, and sunk it into Kiba's stomach. The brunette doubled over, gasping, as the blonde pulled away and started off down the corridor. He slowed when he reached Sakura, and muttered, "If you tell anyone about this, you'll have a gang war on your conscience."

Sakura stared after him, shocked by the simple words that only managed to skim the surface of Naruto's past.

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**Well, I feel pretty good about this chapter. I'm glad I changed the end part. Will you guys let me know if you like it too? I know what's going on now, I kind of lost touch with my own writing but now my muse is back and is constantly kicking me in the head. Good thing it's the last day of term tomorrow. **

**To everyone, have an awesome Easter! Remember that reviews feed starving fanfiction writers! **

**xoxo**

**Sharana**


	5. Chapter V

**So... been really busy lately. I felt that I should finish this chapter, though, just because it's been half-finished for a couple of weeks. Sorry. Both of my senior major works are due in in the next two months, so I might be MIA for a while. Don't worry, I have too many good ideas for this story to abandon it now.**

**You may have noticed that I changed the first few chapters to accommodate for some changed I made in the time scene. Now, high school for the kids ends in two months instead of two weeks. Thanks heaps to Tasogare-no-Raikou, my fellow KH fanfic writer, for her incomparable help in the set-up for the coming chapters. She's American, and I'm Australian... she's been a huge help with my understanding of high school over there. CURSES I SHOULD HAVE SET IT IN A COUNTRY WHERE I COULD MAKE UP MY OWN EDUCATION SCHEME! **

**I've also changed my writer tag name. This is because some unmentioned people from my high school somehow tracked down my page and, in the interests of surviving the next few months without being unnecessarily ridiculed for the fact that I write homosexual fiction, I changed the name to preserve my privacy.**

**Without any more waffle to cloud your brains, on with the show!  
**

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Sasuke stumbled into Gym at exactly ten o'clock, still mulling over the earlier events. He had chosen the class instead of an introduction to religion, and Suigetsu had taken it too because he didn't hold much store in religion. It was one of the few classes that the two of them didn't have with Karin, who, for some crazy reason, had chosen religion.

His silver-haired friend was already changed into his gym clothes, but a completely inactive form in the bleachers. Sasuke pulled a face at the slumped person and entered the locker room.

It was empty. Sasuke opened his locker and grabbed his sneakers, shorts and T-shirt, changed quickly, shoved his school clothes back into the locker, and walked back out.

His class was slowly trickling through the gym doors and migrating towards the locker rooms. Sasuke stepped out of the way, and walked over to where Suigetsu was piled in a heap.

"Oi."

"Grargh," Suigetsu growled. "Go away, neutral person."

"You _are _hungover!"

"Funny how it only kicks in when I need it least," Suigetsu replied, rubbing his face in his hands. "Oh well. If Gai still hates me as much as he did yesterday, I may as well get up and face the music."

"That's the spirit," Sasuke grinned, turning back towards the gym centre and the bowl-haired man who had just entered from the lobby.

Gai, whose last name was not known nor desired, was the most brutal, sickeningly happy, abhorrently fit and obliviously cruel man Sasuke had ever met. This was merely made worse by the fact that his nephew, Lee, was in senior year and merely intensified the previous adjectives in Sasuke's daily life.

The rest of the class was gathering loosely around Gai, who was beaming out at all of them. Sasuke gulped involuntarily.

"All right, kids, you know what time it is..."

A collective groan rose up from the assembled students.

"Go on, you lazy children, run! RUUUUUNNNNN!" Gai shrieked.

"Holy fuck," Suigetsu groaned. Sasuke agreed half-heartedly as they started to run.

They ran around the gym twice before the flies started to drop off. Kids from the class began to veer off to the side, looking green, and then rush to the bathroom. Soon, there were just two left – Sasuke and Suigetsu.

Sasuke stopped running, and turned to his best friend. "So you're not that hungover after all, huh?"

Suigetsu grinned, also coming to a halt. "Nope! I feel fantas – urghhh..." He doubled over, his hands over his mouth.

"Bathroom, now," Gai ordered from behind them. Suigetsu nodded and staggered away.

"Big party last night?"

Sasuke turned his attention back to the gym teacher. "Uh, yeah."

"You didn't drink?"

"Um... no, I don't think so." One beer didn't really count as drinking, anyway. Sasuke found it slightly weird that Gai, as opinionated as he was in the lives of his students, didn't have a problem with underage drinking.

"Good, good... now, the last game. Eight weeks."

Sasuke nodded. The last game of basketball was a big deal for the whole school. The girls played first, followed by the guys. As a dedicated member of the team, Sasuke had a lot of pressure on him.

Konoha High set a lot of store in their basketball teams, and it was well known that their students got into extremely prodigious colleges as a result of the superior schooling and co-curricular activities they offered.

The other students were stumbling out of the bathroom now. Suigetsu was amongst them, looking slightly green still but relatively healthy compared to a few other people.

"I feel _terrible_, man," the silver-haired teen groaned. "This feels like the worst morning _ever_."

"There was that one time last year…"

"Don't you dare even bring that up!"

"It wasn't _my _fault that you woke up in a gutter and missed the math exam!"

"Holy _shit_, that was embarrassing! Don't ever bring it up again! EVERRRR!"

"You are such a baby!"

"Just because it's never happened to _you_!"

"Would you two shut up?" Neji Hyuuga roared, then winced as his consequent hangover headache came back in full force. Everyone around him groaned in discomfort.

"I'm never drinking again," Suigetsu declared, albeit quietly, to spare his throbbing head.

"Liar," Sasuke grinned.

Eventually, when the groaning had died down a little, Gai made them run drills and other horrible things that were his job to make them do. Needless to say, there were more sounds of anguish circulating by the end of the class.

"Stupid teacher," Suigetsu muttered when they finally left the gym. Sasuke grunted in agreement, but sighed in disappointment when he checked his timetable to discover that the next class was Literature, which was one of the only classes that he didn't have with Suigetsu.

"Well, this is where we part ways, friend," Sasuke commented, when they reached the corridor with their separate directions.

"Have a lovely time in your spiffy smart class, asshole," Suigetsu replied, the insult drowned by the goofy smile on his face.

"Oh, I will. Try not to drool all over the desk."

"I'll try. See you at lunch."

Sasuke waved a little with his fingers before turning left as Suigetsu turned right.

As he walked through the halls to his advanced literature class, someone grabbed Sasuke's arm and dragged him into an empty classroom. He was then seized roughly from behind, turned, and slammed into the wall. He shut his eyes instinctively, and his spiky hair slightly cushioned his skull from the jarring impact, but he couldn't help but let out a sharp cry.

The person holding him by the shoulders smelled of diesel oil, rubber, dirt and wet dog. When Sasuke opened his eyes and focused, Kiba came into view.

"What the _fuck_, Kiba?" Sasuke snarled, knocking the other boy's hands away and shoving him in the chest, sending him back a couple of steps.

"How much did you hear this morning?" The question was immediately interrogating, as if no resistance had been put up. Sasuke was instantly on guard.

"Huh?" As far as he knew, Kiba hadn't seen him.

"Sakura told me. So... how much did you hear before you left?"

"I didn't hear anything," Sasuke snapped. "I was too far away."

Kiba studied his face for any sign of deception, but he eventually shrugged and continued. "All right. One more question: how well do you know Naruto?"

"Um..." Sasuke knew Naruto, but not well. All he could remember in relation to any deeper memories was the bubbly thirteen year old blonde from his past, and his infatuation with him for the last few months.

"Not very well...?"

"That doesn't sound very convincing." Kiba's eyes were narrowing, his expression calculating, and Sasuke was very suddenly reminded of his brother when Itachi was trying to get something out of him.

"Look, we're just friends. What do you want from me?"

"I'm just suggesting that you two stay 'just friends'. Naruto is bad news in a big way. You're … you know, and Naruto's interested."

"Oh, you're trying to protect my _virtue_. I get it now," Sasuke smirked. "Well, I'm not a girl, and we're not friends, and if you're trying to keep me away from Naruto, then you can _fuck off_, because I can take care of myself."

At the same time, Sasuke was downright _ecstatic_. Naruto felt the same way about him? And it was so obvious that douchebags like _Kiba_ managed to pick up on it but Sasuke didn't? What the freak?

Kiba's mouth slowly curved into a smirk. "Don't flatter yourself. You're just making a mistake, getting involved with him. Sakura put up with him for a long time, but they didn't really hang out together that much."

"_You _got together with Sakura less than five minutes after she and Naruto broke up," Sasuke retorted. "You're the very _last _person I need to give me relationship advice."

"It's pretty funny how you're so adamantly defending Naruto. Last I heard, you two weren't particularly close. Not since Orochimaru."

CRUNCH.

Sasuke's fist collided with Kiba's face milliseconds after the despised name left his lips. The brunette staggered backwards, holding onto a desk for some support as he glared up at the other boy.

"Don't you _ever _mention him around me again," Sasuke spat.

"Sensitive subject much?" Kiba taunted, rubbing his jaw with the back of his wrist.

"You know _damn well _that I don't like people talking about him to me."

"Whatever," Kiba muttered. "I just thought I'd warn you."

Sasuke glared at him. "Yeah, consider me warned."

With that, Sasuke shoved past Kiba and slammed his way out the door.

Blinded by rage, Sasuke stormed into the corridor and, just his luck, managed to run straight into someone as he rounded the corner.

Unfortunately, that one person happened to be a tall young man with yellow hair and tattoos. Sasuke flinched, and thought furiously, _just when my day couldn't get any worse…_

However, Naruto hadn't noticed that he had almost knocked someone over. In fact, he was already halfway down the hall, and Sasuke was so indignant over his being ignored that he made a small squeak-like noise in protest.

Naruto stopped, but he didn't turn around. He seemed to deliberate for a moment, before, "Aren't you a bit late to class?"

"Aren't _you_?" Sasuke retorted immediately, before catching himself, recalling that Naruto's state of mind might be a little conflicted due to the events that had taken place the night before. "Um… how are you?"

That was when Naruto turned around. His expression was a few stops short of irate. Could it be that he was still pissed off from this morning? However, his face and eyes softened a little.

"My life would be a shit-ton better if Kakuzu was still around to keep his whelp of a brother in line. Other than that, I guess I'm okay. What about you?" He began to walk back.

"I'm better than Suigetsu," Sasuke answered, but his mind reeled. Where could he remember the name Kakuzu from?

"Sasuke, you okay?"

Sasuke felt a little bit sick to his stomach as he remembered.

Kakuzu Inuzuka. Tortured and torn apart, killed in such a horrific, unspeakable way that even Sasuke's father, hardened police chief as he was, was unable to face the case of his murder for long. A stupid mistake by one of Kakuzu's friends had led to his death. Sasuke remembered Kisame talking about him once upon a time, long ago.

By now, Naruto had reached him, but he was staring at Sasuke, worried.

"Sasuke?"

"Did you know him?"

"Huh?"

"Kakuzu Inuzuka! Did you know him?" Sasuke seized Naruto by the sides of his hoodie zippers.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He merely glared.

"He… He was a friend of my brother's."

Sasuke released the blonde. "Oh - okay. Sorry. Just… overreacted a little."

"Are you sure you're okay, Sasuke?"

"It's just that… my dad was really cut up after he took Kakuzu's case. Itachi, too. He didn't speak to anyone for days. Itachi, that is. It was like they were friends, but he never mentioned him."

"If you think your dad and your brother were affected by his death, imagine how his kid brother felt," Naruto muttered, leaning heavily against the wall of the corridor.

Sasuke had completely forgotten that he was meant to go to class. Talking to Naruto was far too interesting. He joined him on the wall, albeit several metres away.

Now, he cocked his head and asked, "You mean Kiba?" He almost spat out the name, still angry from before.

"Yeah. He went into the mode he's in now, furious and dangerous and easy to wind up, when the cops came round to his house and told his parents that Kakuzu was dead. He's been like that ever since, but no one can get through to him. I'm kind of worried about Sakura being with him, actually."

"You can't really do anything about it, though, Naruto," Sasuke reminded the blonde. "She's on her own, so to speak."

"I know. He's just unpredictable. Not that I was any different," he scoffed. "But still. There's a difference between being that guy and watching that guy."

"Well, he seems to be an all-round asshole. Don't worry about it." Sasuke pushed off the wall and began to walk away.

"Has he been harassing you?"

'Harass' was an interesting word to use. When Sasuke didn't reply, Naruto tried again, hastening after him and cutting in front of the brunette.

"What did he say to you?"

Now, there was finally a reaction. Sasuke's face burned with leftover rage, embarrassment, confusion and hesitation.

Naruto saw it all. "What's wrong?"

"Lots of stuff is wrong," Sasuke murmured. "I just want to go home and talk to my brother." He rubbed his temples with his fingertips, and then Naruto stepped a little bit closer and Sasuke remembered what had been bothering him, what he'd been thinking about for the last twelve hours.

"Hey… did you actually mean what you said last night?" _I refuse to be shy about this, _he thought to himself, assuming a confident composure.

"Which part?"

The air around them was, somehow, much lighter all of a sudden.

"The bit about you… and me." _Do not stutter. Say it outright. _

"What part of that part?"

"You're going to make _me _say it, aren't you?"

_Okay, that was definitely a smirk._ _You're getting to him_.

"Ask me the question again?" Sasuke queried.

Naruto drew a breath in. "Sasuke. Would you be interested in going out with me?"

And then Sasuke answered with his heart, not his head.

"Yes. I would."

* * *

**Oooooohhh. Cliffhanger! **

**I will try. I WILL TRY VERY HARD TO WRITE ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE NEXT LITTLE WHILE. I apologise in advance if it doesn't come out in the time space that you expect. I'm not going to make any promises regarding this, as, at the moment, my high school education and my consequent HSC marks are more important. **

**Much love,**

**SharZAM. (- I like this one better, tbh)  
**


	6. Chapter VI

**I've decided, on close study of this story, that parts of it no longer make sense even to me. Therefore, in the interests of my sanity, I have come to the decision that the education system in this world is now of my own creation. I will be going back to change certain things in the other chapters.**

**The truth is, and you would know this if you've ever been to my page, that I am Australian. Trying to direct this story on an American education basis was possibly the worst mistake I have ever made in the history of my fanfiction-writing stretch. **

**Thanks goes to Tasogare-no-Raikou, though, for giving me some valuable pointers about school in America, but then I had to go and lose the email, and never really got the whole gist of it. **

**In Australia, we have maths in four levels - General, Two unit, Extension 1 and Extension 2. Therefore, when I say that Sasuke is doing fourth level math, he's doing two unit, extension 1 and extension 2. In my education world, this means that all of those are in one class, because there is no screwing around in my world. **

**I did General Maths. So detail about the maths class in itself is so minimal you would need a microscope to see it. **

**Some minimal explanations are in the footnote.**

* * *

Suigetsu practically spat his orange juice into Sasuke's face at lunch. "WHAT?"

Karin shoved herself back to avoid the spray, her face contorting back and forth from disgust to surprise. "Whatever happened to ignoring him, hm?"

Sasuke, too, had edged away from his best friend, and moved closer to the redhead on his left. The three of them sat beneath a shady tree in the grounds, slowly and leisurely eating their lunches.

"Slipped my mind," Sasuke replied, and grinned.

He'd made it to Lit class, but he'd been twenty minutes late, his good relationship with Kurenai, the teacher, the only thing saving him from detention. Even Sakura, who was in his class, couldn't dispel the overwhelming feeling of happiness that Sasuke felt upon finally resolving his and Naruto's mutual attraction.

"So when's the event?" Suigetsu asked, having apparently gotten over his shock at his friend's sudden relationship status change.

"We're going to a movie tomorrow night," Sasuke answered, the slim smile refusing to leave his face. "It's a good start."

Karin nodded in agreement. "Do you know what you're going to see yet?"

Suigetsu forced his way into the conversation at this point, declaring loudly, "Whatever you do, don't go and see a soppy romance. That'll scare him away."

"Shut up, Suigetsu," Karin snapped. "It's their choice, after all." She smiled suddenly.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh, it's just… new, how you and him are now a 'they'."

"Yeah... I guess it is a bit weird."

"Not weird," she said firmly. "This is a good thing."

"Of course it is," Sasuke agreed. "If it wasn't, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel so happy."

Suigetsu piped up again. "Hey, this means you might finally lose your virginity!"

Sasuke's eyebrow began to twitch, and he turned his head a little to regard the silver haired youth on his right. Suigetsu didn't even notice the death glare.

"I mean, do you even know how it works? I'm sure me and Karin could give you some adv- uh..."

Sasuke had thrown his lunch remains away from him, and Karin was quite obviously trying to climb over the brunette to get at her boyfriend.

"We're going to kill you," Sasuke deadpanned.

"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD, SUIGETSU!" Karin screamed. With that, she launched herself over Sasuke's legs and tackled the condemned boy to the ground, wrestling in earnest. Sasuke, however, left it to her to discipline Suigetsu in her own way, preferring to watch. However, what Suigetsu had said was well worth thinking about. So, as Suigetsu grunted with the effort of keeping Karin off while not hurting her, Sasuke thought about it.

Of course he knew how it worked. He knew how homosexual men had sex with each other. Just because he hadn't actually done it before, it didn't mean that he hadn't done other things, less serious, but still on the way to the real thing, with other guys. He'd come close to losing his virginity twice already - the first time didn't deign thinking about, but the second time, with Juugo...

Sasuke knew that it hurt the first time, but when he and Juugo had first attempted to fuck, it was both unexpected and unsuccessful. They hadn't been ready for each other, and Sasuke's slim fourteen-year-old body certainly wasn't prepared to accomodate Juugo's nineteen-year-old bulk.

Juugo had some anger problems, and Sasuke, unfortunately, had been on the receiving end of his rage. Their relationship was over after that.

No. What he was concerned about was who was going to be on top, so to speak. Sasuke wanted to have an equal relationship with Naruto, and the only time that was likely to change was in the bedroom. He had had two too many relationships that ended up on the fence because he wasn't brave enough to fight back from being the submissive one.

However, Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't like Juugo. Naruto was kind, gentle, brave, funny and smart. He'd never intentionally hurt Sasuke - but Sasuke wasn't going to fool himself and claim that Naruto wouldn't be able to hurt him accidentally. He took warnings seriously, always had; Kiba's warning had not fallen on deaf ears.

Naruto was a loose cannon - Sasuke would never assume that the blonde was as indestructible as he made himself out to be.

"Fuck, why am I..." Sasuke muttered, hearing the sharp sounds of Suigetsu's pain as Karin pinched his arms and tugged his hair. Of course, she liked his hair too much to pull it out in reality, but it still hurt even if it didn't come out.

_Why am I thinking about this so soon? I mean, we only just initiated a relationship, and I'm already jumping into the hot and heavy topics… _

It was only natural, though. He was a healthy young man and he had needs, just like everyone else. It didn't hurt to think about it.

_I wonder if he's thought about it, too…_

Without even really considering what he was doing, Sasuke turned his head and looked through the windows of the cafeteria, to Naruto's usual table.

Instead of seeing the blonde, Sasuke saw Sakura, sitting in Kiba's lap, surrounded by other randoms. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

Sasuke immediately scanned the other visible parts of the school, and his eyes came to rest on Gaara's startling red hair, way on the other side of the grounds, accompanied by flaming yellow spikes. On closer inspection, Naruto and Gaara were accompanied by another blonde, Ino Yamanaka.

The three of them were sprawled on the grass, staring up at the sky, talking quietly. Sasuke couldn't remember when he'd ever seen Gaara looking so peaceful, smiling and laughing along with the exuberant blondes. He was so different from the surly teenager from last night.

The deadpan-humour redhead was usually so stoic and graceful, but he always carried himself with a dignity that only came from his affiliation with his older brother, Sasori.

Sasori was also one of Itachi's friends, from a time which Sasuke preferred not to think about, and was an artist, focusing on the construction of toys and puppets. Gaara was forced to take up the more mature role despite the four years separating them in age, as Sasori was more inclined to mellow his life away, submersed in art.

However, Gaara had long been suspected of carrying a softer side, and it had been rumoured that he only let it be seen while in the company of the blonde stick of dynamite known as Naruto Uzumaki.

_So it's true... Naruto really does bring out the best in him. _On that thought, Sasuke turned his gaze from Gaara to the blonde, and continued to look at him, unabashedly, as Naruto relaxed with his friends.

Without him realising it, the physical quarrel between Sasuke's best friends had died down, and Suigetsu and Karin were now making out on the grass behind him, Karin moulded perfectly to her boyfriend's body. They silently pulled apart, though, and settled into watching Sasuke watch his new boyfriend, Karin's head nestled against Suigetsu's chest.

The bell clanged throughout the grounds, and Sasuke visibly jumped. Suigetsu huffed out a snicker, and Sasuke levelled a glare at him, half-hearted as it was. The moment was, so to speak, broken, and all three of them got up off the ground and headed back towards the school buildings.

"Grrraaagggghhh," Sasuke groaned, slamming his hand almost through his locker door as his other arm clutched his textbooks. "_WHY_ do I have to have Hatake for double last period? _After_ school finishes?"

Suigetsu, a few lockers away, sighed in sympathy. "Maybe he just likes your company."

"There are only about three other people doing fourth-level maths this year," Sasuke griped. "This shit is getting a bit old."

"Hey, if you're going to decide to be a genius and do a maths class that no one else is doing, stop complaining about it, all right? There are two months before finals, and you just have to put up with it until then."

"Finals... fuck that shit," Sasuke groused. "I just want to go home and talk to Itachi."

"So ditch," Suigetsu shrugged.

"Noooo... I have to go to Maths. Fuck. My. Life." Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and shoved himself off his locker and reluctantly rotated his body in the general direction of his maths room, where his torturer, Hatake Kakashi, was sure to be awaiting him, ready with another practice exam.

"Have fun, sweetie! I'll pick you up after school!" Suigetsu mocked as Sasuke passed him.

Sasuke flipped him the bird over his shoulder.

Maths, for the first time, passed in a blur. The exam wasn't hard, exactly, just fucking tedious, and by the end of it, Sasuke couldn't tell if the diagrams were individual things or just a bunch of lines joined onto other lines, making weird shapes along the front of his vision in a kaleidoscope of mindless confusion.

The bell rang, and Sasuke wondered if his still-mildly-hungover-brain was playing tricks on him, dangling his most desired wish in front of him like a piece of meat in front of a hungry lion.

It wasn't until Hatake poked him in the forehead with his ruler that Sasuke regained his basic motor functions. He glanced around, discovering that everyone else had left, and it was now just him and Hatake in the room.

"Time to go, Sasuke," he suggested quietly, as if he didn't want to startle the teenager, "home time."

As if on cue, Sasuke's phone buzzed in his pocket, a slight tingle against his thigh. It was set to the lowest vibration he could manage, but he always felt that Hatake could hear it anyway. However, when he looked up from his finished practice exam, the teacher was already back at his desk, leafing through some notes.

_How the crap does he move so fast? _Sasuke blinked slowly, as if he expected his teacher to move another large amount of distance in the time it took for his eyelids to fully open again, but nothing extraordinary happened, apart from Hatake looking up and raising an eyebrow at him.

Sasuke gathered up his exam and took it to the teacher's desk for Hatake to take in and mark, but the teacher stopped him before he could hand it over.

"No need, Sasuke, I already marked it while you were dozing."

Sasuke, embarrassed, attempted to muster an excuse for his sleepiness, but his teacher once again stopped him.

"Sasuke, you only began to nap _after_ you'd finished the exam. I could have allowed you to leave, but you seemed content to sleep on your desk instead. But relax - you got ninety-eight. You forgot to carry a number in one of the questions, but everything else was up to your usual standard. Though I would suggest you get some more sleep tonight than you did last night. Have a good afternoon, Sasuke."

Sasuke stood, dazed, for a moment, then turned on his heel, grabbed the rest of his stuff, and marched out of the classroom. As soon as he was clear, he extracted his phone and checked his messages, finding one from Suigetsu at the top of the list.

_Me & Karin went home, but Kisame said he'd pick you up on his way through. Look for the obnoxious blue sportscar... parked right outside The Office. _

The Office was the main office, where the principal, Tsunade, resided. Students weren't allowed to park in front of it, but Kisame held a special kind of grudge against the school because they'd towed his first car from the parking lot after he'd painted swear words on it the night before. Whenever he picked up Suigetsu or any of his friends from school, he always parked in front of The Office, because they couldn't do anything to him now that he didn't go to the school.

It was, essentially, like a big FUCK YOU to the school in general.

True to Suigetsu's instructions, Kisame and his bright blue car were waiting for Sasuke when he emerged, world-weary and maths-weary and ready to pass out. Kisame seemed to have anticipated such a state, because he wasn't inside his car - no, he was leaning on the hood, and he helpfully relieved Sasuke of his school bag, putting them in the backseat, before clapping the teenager on the shoulder and wordlessly herding him into the passenger seat.

"Thanks, Kisame," Sasuke muttered, rolling his head over to face Kisame as the huge, muscled guy slid into the driver's seat, attempting to focus with all the bright LED lights that adorned the interior of the car. "I'm so fucking glad that it's Friday..."

"No problem, Sasuke," Kisame chuckled, reaching over and ruffling Sasuke's hair so it stuck right up at the top, a style that he knew the teen detested. "Suigetsu sounded the same when he rang me up. But _he_ didn't spend the last two hours doing four-unit maths. Feel free to pass out."

"I might just kip for a bit," Sasuke murmured, already feeling the sleep overtake him. He wished there was a naptime allocated in high school...

What seemed like two seconds later, but what was probably the better part of half an hour, Kisame was shaking him gently awake - or, at least, as gently as you could shake someone when you were well over twice the size of said other person.

"Come on, Sasuke, you're home now."

Sasuke groaned and muttered something along the lines of 'I don't wanna', and he heard Kisame chuckle, before the other man grabbed him by the elbows and forcibly removed him from the car seat.

Sasuke's eyes flew open and his legs scrambled for purchase on the pavement, scowling half-heartedly up at Kisame, who let out a throaty laugh and set him down.

"You're way more fun than Suigetsu to mess with," Kisame commented as he handed Sasuke his bag. "He just hisses at me and squirms away like a fucking snake."

He and Sasuke shook hands for a moment, and then Sasuke headed up the path to his house, and Kisame screeched off in his fancy car.

Sasuke unlocked his front door and let himself in, immediately hauling himself up the stairs and throwing himself into bed, fully clothed, dimly aware that the clock read 5:45 PM, and passed out into oblivion.

* * *

**So, little did I know, I'd already mostly finished this chapter, including the foreword, and just discovered it about a week ago. **

**I don't have any good excuses, apart from the fact that for the past year, I've very much wanted to write but have been solidly handicapped by a vicious writing block, as well as the fact that, apart from the self-deprecating curiosity that keeps me reading the manga, I've gone off Naruto and Bleach almost entirely. **

**I will force myself to finish this story, because it simply WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE until I do, and I already know the story that I have to flesh out. **

**There are my reasons. **

**Have a lovely New Year, everyone! **

**x Sharzam x**


	7. Chapter VII

**Whoa, another chapter? How can this be? I'm trying to finish this story before I start university in couple of month or so. I can probably do it in a month... which is kind of sad when you think about it... sort of ridiculous. Thanks for sticking with me, you guys.**

* * *

"So..."

Sasuke stared groggily up at his older brother, uncomprehending. "What..."

"Rumour has it you have a date tomorrow," Itachi snickered, taking another gulp of soda as he looked intently at Sasuke.

"What rumour?" Sasuke asked, fully aware that he sounded drunk and that his parents, on the other end of the table, were giving him weird looks.

"Well, I have a certain network of friends who have younger siblings in your year group," Itachi explained, "and Ino Yamanaka happens to be a shameless gossip, as is her older brother, Deidara."

Sasuke remembered the blonde girl who had been sitting with Naruto at lunch, and groaned. If Itachi knew, chances were that the entire school knew as well.

"And was he correct in telling me the other half of this rumoured date...?"

"Naruto?"

"FU-... I mean, heck yeah!" Itachi corrected himself mid-sentence in order not to ruffle their parents. "Nagato owes me twenty bucks."

"Who?"

"Naruto's brother. He bet me that Naruto wouldn't have the guts."

"_He _had the guts _twice_. I'm the one who said no the first time," Sasuke muttered, embarrassed once more.

"_Why _would you say no?" Itachi demanded, disbelief showing clearly on his face. "Do you reckon I can use that to leech more money out of Nagato?"

"_No_, Itachi."

"So, what are you guys doing? For your _daaaa-aaate_."

Sasuke scowled at him. Then he slowly acquired a mild pink flush to his cheeks, and Itachi regarded this change in complexion with stunned delight. He could probably count on one hand the amount of times he'd seen Sasuke blush before now.

"We're just going to the movies, just whatever."

"Sasuke, might I remind you that it's been three years since you went out with anyone you had even slight feelings for, and that you're not expected to put out on the first date?" Itachi teased quietly, keeping his voice low to avoid scolding from their parents.

Sasuke lashed out with a hand, fully intending to hit Itachi on the back of the head, but Itachi caught his wrist with ease, smiling gently.

"You've been thinking about it all day, haven't you?" Itachi asked, lowering Sasuke's hand and releasing his wrist, letting his little brother withdraw from the contact.

"Yeah, and a few other things," Sasuke muttered, humiliated by his brother's intuition.

"You boys better not be fighting down there," Mikoto announced from her position at the head of the table, where she had the best view to keep an eye on her two sons.

They had always sat at the table the same way for as long as Sasuke could remember, with her at the top of the table, their father on her right side, then the two spaces in the middle left free, and Sasuke at the other end of the table at the top, with Itachi on his right. When  
Sasuke was little, Itachi had been the one to make sure he wasn't throwing his food across the room or crying with more fervour than was entirely necessary. Mealtimes were pretty much the only times when Mikoto got a break from baby Sasuke - Itachi took over as his babysitter when Sasuke was around food.

"No, Mother," they both sang innocently, before falling back into conference with each other.

"I can't help _thinking _about it, Itachi," Sasuke defended hotly, his voice pitched low. "It's perfectly natural, and I don't really have any good experience with ... _it_."

Now, Itachi was very sorely tempted to tease and taunt Sasuke within an inch of his life about his lack of experience, but he stopped himself since it would be distasteful and cruel, especially given Sasuke's past, shitty experiences.

Instead, Itachi passed from teasing big brother to concerned, loving big brother, and eager to dispatch advice. "Sasuke, you know you can always talk to me if you want to," he suggested gently. He was glad when Sasuke nodded and gave him a small smile in response.

The rest of dinner passed without consequence, but when Itachi made for his room, Sasuke reached out a hand and stopped him with a touch to his arm. "Itachi."

"What is it?"

"What do you know about Kiba Inuzuka?" Sasuke asked, almost hesitant. After all, Itachi _had_ said that Sasuke could talk to him, but he wasn't sure about the possibility of a favourable response from the older Uchiha on this particular subject.

Itachi's face closed almost immediately, his eyes narrowing and his expression going from practically playful to deadly serious in an instant. Sasuke actually took a step back and released his brother's elbow, at which point Itachi seemed to realise that he was appearing quite threatening and attempted to soften his expression. It only half-worked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, he sort of threatened me today and-"

"He _threatened _you? That little whelp! When I get a hold of him, I swear to fucking-"

"Itachi! I took care of it, okay? But he was warning me away from Naruto for some reason - this was just before he asked me out again - and when Naruto and I were talking, he mentioned Kakuzu and then he said that Kiba was Kakuzu's _brother_, and that he'd kind of gone off the rails after Kakuzu was killed. Do you know anything about that?"

"Sasuke..." Itachi began, but stopped when he figured out that he didn't really have anything to say.

"I just want to know if there's a reason why I should stay away from Naruto, or if I should stay away from Kiba instead."

"You should _definitely _stay away from Kiba," Itachi spat vehemently. His insistence was mildly startling. "That kid is fucked up and I speak as not only your big brother, but also a police officer, when I say that you should stay as far away from him as possible. He'll hurt you just like he hurt Pein." He pinned Sasuke with a firm stare before breaking and slipping into his room, his face set in a stormy expression.

_Pein...?_ _Probably not important, _Sasuke thought to himself. Then, he heard Itachi's window slide open. _He's sneaking out? He hasn't done that in years - not like he needs to, he has a car and he could have just walked out the door... unless he doesn't want _me_ to know he's leaving._

Sasuke turned the handle on his brother's door and pushed it open, Itachi's name fading on his lips as he noticed the open window and the empty room.

_What could be so important that he would climb out the damn window to get out of the house, seemingly without me knowing about it?_

Shrugging, and even more confused than he had been before, Sasuke retired to his own room, puzzling over his brother's strange behaviour.

Itachi was about a kilometre away from his house when Kisame, who had answered his call about five minutes ago, pulled up on the road next to him.

"Get in," Kisame shouted over the radio.

Itachi didn't say anything in reply - he got in the car next to his best friend, and they drove off.

Kisame turned the radio off and asked, "What the hell happened? You haven't sneaked out like this since you were eighteen."

"Inuzuka's getting up on his game," Itachi snarled at last, and his voice had so much fury in it that Kisame pulled his car over to the kerb and sat there, waiting for more.

Itachi sighed when he saw that he suddenly had Kisame's full attention, and continued, "He threatened Sasuke today."

At Kisame's barely-concealed snarl, Itachi held up a hand to placate him. "Nothing like that, it was just about his new romantic interest."

"Oh? And why would Inuzuka have a say about Sasuke's personal life?" Kisame growled.

"Because it's Naruto Uzumaki that just asked my baby brother out."

"Really."

Kisame knew about Sasuke's preferences - Itachi hadn't told him, and neither had Suigetsu, but the mere fact that they were both hiding something alerted the huge man into investigation mode, wherein he tracked the connection to both of them, which was Sasuke, and figured it out for himself.

"Whooooooo saw _that_ coming," Kisame commented.

"Yeah, they were thick as thieves in primary school, weren't they," Itachi mused. "How things change. They went from being best friends, to alienating each other, to going out."

"You can't blame Naruto for not wanting to be around Sasuke all that time, though."

"Yeah, but losing Naruto as a friend was a huge blow, especially after everything else that happened. Sasuke didn't even know why he was being ignored - he never saw Naruto that night."

"So how do you feel about Sasuke going out with Naruto? I mean, it can't be that ideal, considering how much he might let slip."

"I don't have any grudges against Naruto. Just like I don't have anything against Minato or any of his sons. They did what they had to do at the time that action was needed, and although the cost for such actions was high, they did us a great service. Even Naruto."

"If Sasuke finds out about Naruto's involvement with his, er, situation... he'd want to hear it from you," Kisame warned. "If Naruto told him then he'd lose every shred of trust Sasuke has been building up."

Itachi scrubbed his face with his hands. "I know, I know. I just never thought that I'd have to be the one to tell him. Pein... he was supposed to explain it to Sasuke, so everything was clear, everything was on the table, but he never got around to it and then he was arrested and no one ended up talking to Sasuke. Fuck this whole mess. Why the hell did I leave it for so long!" Itachi was now digging crescent marks into his palms with his fingernails; Kisame reached over and pried his hands apart.

"Itachi, jeez, calm the fuck down," Kisame soothed, worried. "It's gonna be okay, all right? Sasuke's tough, Kiba's not going to be a problem - if anything happens, Naruto can handle it. But we gotta go and see him."

"What?"

"You _know _what, 'Tachi. We have to go and see Nagato."

Naruto was just heading into his room when he heard the doorbell ring. He was almost to the stairs before he heard his older brother moving through the house to the door. He lingered, unsure if he should stay in case it was for him, or if it was for his brother and he was permitted to eavesdrop. Considering who stepped over the threshold, probably not.

"Itachi, Kisame," Nagato Uzumaki said in way of greeting and invitation all in one, "to what do I owe this unusual pleasure?"

Itachi scanned the house and caught Naruto's eye. Like a deer caught in the headlights, the blonde froze. Itachi looked him in the eye for a few moments, and then turned his attention back to Nagato.

In response to the redhead's politely puzzled look, Itachi said, in a voice that, although quiet, managed to carry through the whole foyer, "You owe me twenty bucks. And... We need to talk."

Nagato's face closed, and he ushered Kisame and Itachi into the adjoined sitting room, shooting a look at Naruto that clearly conveyed '_disappear_'.

Naruto disappeared.

* * *

**I do like this chapter. It finally feels like I'm going somewhere with the whole storyline, not just the romance that I'm squeezing into it. Don't worry - it's coming. I feel that if I didn't address the actual story soon, I'd never get around to it and I'd land myself in another writer's block rut again. **

**Much love to you all. **

**x Sharzam x **


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